Reason to Believe A Personal Story

Ron Tesoriero - Australia (2007)

In my book, How to Wolf-proof Your Kids, I recommend introducing your children to fact-based investigations of the miraculous. At the back of the book, I recommended Ruth Cranston's Miracles of Lourdes

I'm always on the lookout for new resources in this area. A priest friend recommended that I check out "Science tests Faith." I did and I was pretty impressed, but I wanted more information. I mentioned it during a talk at a homeschooling conference, saying that I didn't have enough information to give it a definitive thumbs up or down, but I thought it was interesting. Afterwards, I was approached by a woman who told me about how she gave the material to her son, who was flirting with atheism, and it completely turned him around. Later that day, the woman visited my book table and gave me a copy of Ron Tesoriero's book, Reason to Believe.

The book details Mr. Tesoriero's journey back to the Catholic Faith from atheism, along with noted Australian journalist Mike Willisee. Their journeys surround their person investigation of three miraculous instances - a bleeding and crying statue of Jesus, a woman with stigmata (a manifestation of the wounds of Christ), and a Eucharistic miracle). The book details these three investigations and give the results of scientific tests that were performed.

I also learned that these two gentlemen produced two videos, A Plea to Humanity (Un Llamado a la Humanidad) and The Eucharist (La Santa Eucaristia). Plea to Humanity covers some of the scientific testing and observations of the bleeding statue and the woman with stigmata (including footage of the appearance and healing of the stigmata). The Eucharist is more or less a primer on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist with an occasional clip from scientist who examined a Eucharistic miracle. Both videos are very good. The Plea for Humanity does include some explicit scenes that would not be appropriate for younger children.

I give a cautious recommendation of this material with the caveat that all the testing done by these gentlemen were done "in house," so to speak. Therefore, the trustworthiness of the information rests on their truthfulness. From everything that I have found, I have no reason to doubt their veracity. But I would hate to give a full recommendation and find out later that there were problems.

The material in the book (as well as the video) provide support for the fact that miracles do happen and can stand up to scientific analysis. But it is should always be remembered that the Catholic Faith neither stands nor falls on miracles such as these. Nevertheless, true miracles do help those weak in Faith and provide additional evidence for unbelievers.